Apple has offered a set of commitments to competition regulators in the European Union aimed at resolving concerns focused on NFC payments and mobile wallet tech on iOS, its mobile operating system. The EU suspects Apple of unfairly favoring its own mobile payment tech, Apple Pay, and squeezing out the ability of rivals to develop competing contactless payment offerings on its mobile platform.
Key Takeaway
Apple has proposed commitments to address concerns raised by the EU regarding its Apple Pay mobile payment technology, aiming to resolve the antitrust probe and potentially avoid significant fines.
Proposed Commitments by Apple
- Access to NFC functionality on iOS devices for third party mobile wallet and payment service providers, free of charge, via a set of APIs.
- Equivalent access to NFC components through “Host Card Emulation (‘HCE’) mode” for securely storing payment credentials and completing transactions using NFC.
- Application of the proposed commitments to all third party mobile wallet app developers in the European Economic Area and to all iOS users with an Apple ID registered in the region.
- Additional features and functionality for third parties, including “defaulting of preferred payment apps, access to authentication features such as FaceID, and a suppression mechanism”.
- Application of “fair, objective, transparent, and non-discriminatory” eligibility criteria to grant NFC access to third parties.
- Set up of a dispute settlement mechanism under which any decisions to deny access to NFC input will be reviewed by independent experts.
Consultation and Potential Consequences
The Commission has opened a consultation seeking feedback on Apple’s offer, and is allowing a month from publication of the full text of Apple’s proposed commitments in the EU’s Official Journal for submissions to be made. If the commitments are accepted by the EU, they would be in force for ten years, with an independent monitoring trustee appointed to monitor application. Any future failure to honor accepted pledges could see Apple fined up to 10% of its worldwide turnover without the need by the Commission to prove an infringement of EU antitrust rules.
